SLEDGE DOGS 283 



were offered at ten to twelve roubles, and white fox at 

 three to five roubles. We made many inquiries for sable * 

 and black fox, but did not succeed in ever seeing any. 

 They are all carefully reserved for the Yeneseisk merchants, 

 who no doubt would be very angry if they heard of any of 

 these valuable skins "going past " them. We were told 

 that the price of sable was twenty-five roubles and black 

 fox double that price or more. The beaver has been 

 extinct on the Yenesei for many years. We bought a few 

 skins of red fox f with wonderfully large brushes, and the 

 general colour a richer and intenser red than ours, the 

 price varying from two to four roubles. 



As we got further north we found fine dogs at the 

 stations, and occasionally we met a sledge drawn by dogs. 

 These animals are most sagacious. A Russian traveller 

 will hire a sledge with a team of six dogs, travel in it ten 

 or fifteen miles to the next station, where he gives the 

 dogs a feed, and sends them home again alone with the 

 empty sledge. On several occasions we met teams 

 of dogs returning alone with the empty sledges. They 

 are fine fellows, a little like a Scotch shepherd's dog, but 



* The sable (Martes zibellina) is only found in Siberia, being represented in 

 America by a nearly allied species (Martes americana), which is said to differ from 

 its Siberian cousin both in the form of the skull and the shape of the teeth. 

 There is little or no difference in the general appearance of the two species, and 

 they are subject to much the same variation in the colour and quality of the fur, 

 though I have never seen skins from Hudson Bay in which the hairs were as long 

 or as thick as in Siberian skins, nor are the American skins ever quite so dark as 

 the finest Asiatic ones, though when dyed it is sometimes difficult to detect the 

 difference at a glance. The price of sables in St. Petersburg, at the best shops, 

 varies from 2 to 25 each, according to quality. The quality at 6 (60 roubles) 

 is, however, rich enough and dark enough for ordinary use. 



t The red fox ( Vulpes vulgaris) is a circumpolar quadruped. The Arctic form is 

 of a richer, deeper red than that found in more temperate regions, and has longer 

 hair and a much more bushy tail. On both continents a melanistic form, called 

 the black or silver fox, occasionally occurs, the silver fox having white tips to the 

 black hairs. In St. Petersburg, fine skins of the silver fox fetch ^25, but the best 

 skins of black fox are sold as high as 50. 



